Regular playing time is suiting Jayson Werth well. Last season Werth, in part time duty, hit eight HR's. This season, he's got nine taters thanks to the three he hit tonight off of the team he broke into the major leagues with: the Toronto Blue Jays. Werth's three HR's drove home eight runs which tied a Phillies record, and led to a 10-3 win.

"Anything can happen on any given day, I guess," Werth said. "This game is crazy. It's not like I was trying to do anything like that. It just happened. I don't know what else to say. It's just crazy."

Of course, every good story in baseball has a victim, and that victim is Blue Jays starter David Purcey, who gave up the first two homers to Werth ... a three run shot in the second, and a bomb to right field off the upper facade for a grand slam. Purcey was optioned to AAA Syracuse after the game. (Trivia: Werth's grandfather is former longtime major leaguer Ducky Schofield, his uncle is former Angels shortstop Dick Schofield, and his father is former Royal and Yankee Dennis Werth.)

Like a septugenarian with a cell phone, the Phillies refuse to be dragged into the latest trends. They haven't offered Cole Hamels a long-term deal, a la Ryan Braun or Fausto Carmona, even though the lefthander is already the ace of their rotation.

Pat Gillick said the door isn't closed to such discussions but it isn't open right now, either. The downside, injury or decline in performance, is too great for Gillick to contemplate locking Hamels up.

"I mean, what is a great deal? At the time, it might be a great deal. Especially if a pitcher comes up with a bad arm, they aren't in a great deal. If a guy doesn't perform, it isn't a great deal."

And if my grandmother had testicles...

There's always going to be risk when you sign a player long-term but I don't see why the Phillies wouldn't be, at the very least, exploring a deal. It doesn't have to be the eight years that Braun got but a deal that buys out his arbitration years and perhaps a year of free agency would mean a five-year commitment. They know as well as anyone how hard it is to find good pitching.

If Hamels passes it up because he wants to gamble on making more money, so be it. You're in the same position you are today but have at least shown a willingness to keep your best players in house for as long as possible.

You'd think this year's spate of ballpark fatalities would have fans playing it a bit safer while enjoying a few hours at the yard. Alas, when it comes to a chance to put their mitts on a genuine big league baseball, all thoughts of self-preservation go out the window.

We've all seen scrums for home runs and foul balls but the scariest thing about this story is that there's no judgment made about the ball's provenance.

Adam Eaton shagged fly balls in the outfield and tossed one to a fan near the railing in left field. Another fan stepped in front, but leaned over too far. His weight propelled him over the railing.

Luckily, he grabbed the railing with one arm as he fell to the warning track, allowing him to land on his feet, rather than his head.

"It was one of the scariest things I've seen," Eaton said.

The MLB.com sub-headline for this story, "Ambitious onlooker tumbles from stands," creates a definition for ambitious that I was unfamiliar with.

Someone should really write up a big book of guidelines for people attending games and right up front should be "Thou shalt not risk life and limb to steal a ball from another fan when it's thrown over the fence by a mediocre starter." You want to take a chance at a broken neck for a Brandon Webb collectible, I won't judge, but let's have some standards.

(H/T The 700 Level)

On Deck is FanHouse's look at the day's most intriguing baseball matchups

Los Angeles Angels (24-17) vs. Chicago White Sox (18-20) - 10:05PM Est.

While most of the world knows John Lackey as our very own Pat Lackey's older, harder-throwing, better-smelling, and much smarter estranged brother, he's better known in southern California as the ace of the Angels pitching staff (Pat , on the other hand, was turned down by the Angels when he applied to become the new rally monkey).

Lackey won 19 games for the Angels last season, and helped lead them to another AL West division crown, but he hasn't been available to the team at all this season. Of course, his absence hasn't done much to keep the Angels out of first place out west.

Now, with his return today, the Angels have become even stronger.

The Phillies should be contending for the NL East title for the entire season which should leave them with some interesting decisions when the year comes to a close. Both Brad Lidge and Pat Burrell are set to be free agents and the notoriously tight-fisted club is going to have to decide whether or not to sign each of them to long-term extensions.

Burrell is in the midst of his fourth straight strong season as a righty complement to Chase Utley and Ryan Howard and his stroke is tailor-made for the Bank. He's been through the wringer in a very tough town and has come out smelling like roses. Lidge seems to have put his own psychological issues to rest and hasn't given up a run since coming to Philly.

Unless they deal Howard, there's little chance they'll sign both so which one makes more sense? Burrell may be easier to replace but he's also the safer bet for sustained success. Lidge fills a bigger need but comes with much risk.

Signing Lidge makes the most sense, Ken Rosenthal argues, and I agree on the face of it. Getting pitchers to come to that park by choice isn't easy so when you have one succeeding there, it behooves you to capitalize on it. The spectre of his past struggles looms, though, and he's likely to have some more rough patches over a three or four year deal.

On Deck is FanHouse's look at the day's most intriguing baseball matchups

Arizona Diamondbacks (22-12) vs. Philadelphia Phillies (20-15) - 3:40PM Est.

If I were a member of the Philadelphia Phillies, I'd probably just skip the trip to Chase Field and go straight to the airport to catch my flight to San Francisco. I mean, Brandon Webb is starting for the Diamondbacks this afternoon, so you already know you're going to lose, why waste your time?

Webb has won his first seven starts of the season, which makes him 7-0, and has an ERA of 2.49 while doing so. Now he's looking to get off to the fastest start ever by an Arizona pitcher, as he's already tied Randy Johnson's mark with his first seven starts. The Big Unit accomplished his feat in 2000, and then went on to win the second of the four straight Cy Youngs he won for the DBacks.

The crazy thing is, if Webb does win today and move to 8-0, it may set a team record for the quickest to eight wins, but it won't even be the first time in Brandon's career he's started a season 8-0. He did it in 2006, though it took him eleven starts, and went on to win his own Cy Young award.

My favorite rule in baseball? The dropped third strike. Even if you completely swing and miss at a horrible pitch -- or maybe a good pitch -- there's still a chance for redemption. Hey ook: I struck out but I'm still on first base! (A.J. Pierzynski remembers this well.)

But, as the above clip between Shane Victorino and Conor Jackson shows, sometimes the angle of a throw from the catcher ends up causing a bit of a ruckus at first base. Victorino stayed in the game and ended up scoring that inning. Jackson wasn't feeling too pretty after the game.

But yeah: ouch.

HT: The 700 Level.

The US is going green, buildings are going green, your mom is going green, baseball is going green: we know this. It's become cool to start loving and caring for our environment, instead of something your third grade teacher tells you about in social studies. And, it is the Philadelphia Phillies who are leading the charge MLB-wise in this whole Al Gore-minded endeavor. Seriously, they've made quite the splash.

To offset the carbon footprint created by the team's utility power usage at Citizens Bank Park, the Phillies have purchased 20 million kilowatt-hours of Green-e Energy Certified Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs). According to the EPA, this is the largest single purchase of 100% renewable energy in professional sports and is equivalent to the planting of 100,000 trees.

Whoa, 100,000 trees? Kudos on the major buy, friends. No word on whether the purchase of this renewable energy is going to speed along Jimmy Rollins' recovery time, but, you know, he'll be back soon enough.

On Deck is FanHouse's look at the day's most intriguing baseball matchups

Kansas City Royals (14-16) vs. Los Angeles Angels (20-13) - 8:10PM Est.

Who the hell needs John Lackey and Kelvim Escobar? It's a question that many Angels fans have probably been asking themselves a bit the last few weeks. I mean, those two were only the two best starters on the Angels staff last year, winning a combined 37 games.

Who needs those 37 wins when you have Joe Saunders and Ervin Santana? Those two have pitched back-to-back all season long, and neither have bothered to try losing a game yet. Yesterday Saunders improved to 6-0 on the year with a win over the Orioles, and today Ervin will try to join his teammate at 6-0.

On Deck is FanHouse's look at the day's most intriguing baseball matchups.

Chicago Cubs (17-12) at St. Louis Cardinals (19-11) - 3:45 PM ET

A Cubs/Cardinals game on a Saturday afternoon which is aired on national television will always bring back memories of Ryne Sandberg hitting dingers off of Bruce Sutter while Bob Costas freaks out on NBC. Of course, not everything can be like it was in the 80's. Sandberg is now a coach, the Cardinals no longer wear powder blue uniforms, and Costas is currently teaming with Buzz Bissinger to stop the spread of evil bloggers like us, who didn't even exist in the 80's. But one thing is like it was then: Cubs vs. Cardinals on this Saturday afternoon on national television is an important matchup with may help decide the division (even if the division is the N.L. Central, and not the N.L. East as it was in the 80's).

In the here and now, the Cardinals, who won the first game of this series last night on a Skip Schumaker walk-off home run, will go with the wildly successful Kyle Lohse (3-0, 2.36), while the Cubs hit the field with the not so wildly successful Ted Lilly (1-4, 6.46). In the bullpen, watch out for rookie Kyle McClellan, who has a .211 batting average against, with a 1.72 ERA and a 0.89 WHIP so far this season. (Actually, I only bring up McClellan as an excuse to tell you that on the day that Sandberg hit two HR's on NBC, McClellan was alive for all of eleven days. Damn, I'm old. And I love the 80's.)